A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying

A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying

by Laurie Ann Guerrero
A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying

A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying

by Laurie Ann Guerrero

Paperback(1st Edition)

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Overview

Filled with the nuanced beauty and complexity of the everyday—a pot of beans, a goat carcass, embroidered linens, a grandfather’s cancer—A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying journeys through the inherited fear of creation and destruction. The histories of South Texas and its people unfold in Laurie Ann Guerrero’s stirring language, including the dehumanization of men and its consequences on women and children. Guerrero’s tongue becomes a palpable border, occupying those liminal spaces that both unite and divide, inviting readers to consider that which is known and unknown: the body. Guerrero explores not just the right, but the ability to speak and fight for oneself, one's children, one's community—in poems that testify how, too often, we fail to see the power reflected in the mirror.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780268010478
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date: 02/15/2013
Series: Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 84
Sales rank: 478,014
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

A native of South Texas, Laurie Ann Guerrero is the author of Babies under the Skin, which won the 2008 Panhandler Publishing Chapbook Award. Her poetry and criticism have appeared in a number of journals. She teaches for the MFA Program at the University of Texas at El Paso, University of the Incarnate Word, and Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction to the Poems Francisco X. Alarcón xiii

Preparing the Tongue 1

I One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, i. 5

Sundays after Breakfast: A Lesson in Speech 6

Bluing the Linens 7

Las Lenguas 8

Summer 9

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, ii. 11

A Meal for the Tribe 12

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, iii. 13

Yellow Bird 14

Little Mexican Pot 15

Turnips 16

Babies under the House 17

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, iv. 19

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, v. 20

Roosters: Homecoming 21

Esperanza Tells Her Friends the Story of La Llorona 22

Ode to El Cabrito 24

Stray Cat 25

How I Put Myself through School 26

Morning Praise of Nightmares, one 27

Morning Praise of Nightmares, two 28

II Sundays after Breakfast: A Lesson in Cotton Picking 33

Put Attention 35

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, vi. 36

Breasts 37

Ode to My Boots 38

Ode to a Skein of Red Embroidery Thread 39

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, vii. 40

Wooden Box 41

Black Hat 42

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, viii. 44

Mr. G's Collection 45

Cocooning 47

Babies under the Skin 48

Pinedale, CA 49

Like Jesus 50

When I Made Eggs This Morning 51

Stones 52

My Mother Woke a Rooster 54

My Mother Asks to Be Cremated 55

My Mother Will Take a Lover 56

Ancient Algebra 57

One Man's Name: Colonization of the Poetic, ix. 58

The Alchemy of Mothering 59

Early Words for My Son 60

On Blinding 61

Birth Day 62

Notes 65

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